Remember when Kanye West so obnoxiously interrupted/ruined Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 Video Music Awards?
Overnight Kanye began popping up in all sorts of important moments throughout history… MLK Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech… President Obama’s most recent State of the Union address… Steve Bartman’s infamous oops! incident during a MLB playoff game between the Chicago Cubs and the Florida Marlins in 2003 (I’m not still bitter or anything)… Neil Armstrong stepping foot on the moon… You get the picture.
Anyway… all of this is to say that the “Kanye West Internet Meme” phenomenon came to mind this morning after a casual viewing of updates on Facebook.
I was cruising down through the various postings of photos, updates, news stories, etc. when I discovered on at least four separate occasions some individuals who, like Kanye, can’t seem to resist inserting themselves into every, single, solitary bit of drama that may be occuring in another person’s life.
They are the same people every time and I can count on them (with stunning regularity) to get “involved” whenever something noteworthy within their community occurs. Be it death, trajedy, illness, a terrible accident or a social injustice… they will be there—like Kanye—to grab their bit of someone else’s spotlight.
Now, you may be asking… “If you find their behavior to be so vexing, Joanna, why don’t you just unfriend them?” And you would be absolutely, understandably and undeniably reasonable in asking such a question.
But I hedge in cutting them loose because I’m not too certain who has the bigger problem here. Is it the individuals who feel the need to ride other people’s coattails of misfortune? Or is it me… the one who finds them so annoying, so perplexing, so psychologically flawed and fascinating that I felt the need to compile this post?
I don’t know the answer… yet. And I don’t know whether or not my friend list will become shorter by half a dozen or so by tomorrow. But while I am mulling that over, I’ll leave you with this as I simply could not resist…
Woman In Thrisis 
Well in the words of someone wiser than I, though I don’t have the name of who ever coined the phrase first, nonetheless it’s truth has served me well, ” When ever you are pointing at someone else there are 4 fingers pointing back at you. I always remember this if / when I get the urge to but into someone else’s business 🙂 Of course that leads to another problem I have which is wanting to hear the juicy tidbits of someone else’s business in the first place, I suppose that leads to another cliche, “curosity killed the cat” 🙂 Good grief, living life in a bubble sounds good right about now 😀
Yes, yes and yes. I know what you mean and yet am a little curious at times. I guess I just don’t try to PLACE myself into their story so that I can be recognized. And yes… too much curiosity not too good for the cat 😛
It was Dillinger. The entire comment went like this:
When ever you are pointing at someone else there are 4 fingers pointing back at you, which is why I’m holding the gun and you’re just about to open the bank vault.
:-0 Not exactly what I had in mind… 🙂
I do the same thing. Actually I stopped looking at facebook so much because it was the same old people doing the same old thing all the time. I really don’t know how people have that much time to kill or are that bored.
I agree 100% Linda. I do a lot less Facebooking than I used to and yesterday morning I remembered why. Seems that everytime I am greeted with other people going on about business that doesn’t involve them. Of course, I also come from a very small town and that is a major reason why people seemingly have nothing better to do 😛
I’m always amazed at how many friends people on Facebook have. I only have three. Some people have over three thousand. A couple of weeks ago, I decided I’d make a couple more friends, so I contacted a friend’s friend–the friend looked friendly, based on her Facebook page, So I friended her and she accepted. Well, I figure: Hey, If I’m going to be someone’s friend I ought to at least exchange a few words. So I wrote something, then she wrote something, then I wrote a reply, and then my new “friend” hung up on me. The friendship lasted about a minute and a half.
That is too funny!! 😀 I love that! That could be a post all it’s own in your online journal… You could call it: “Speed Friending”!!
Pfft. You haven’t seen vexing, absolutely, understandably and undeniably annoying, perplexing, psychologically flawed, and yet fascinating behavior until you’ve been to my WordPress site.
I love it! Must get over there immediately! 🙂
So. “Your Face Here” ironically addressing “farcebook” issues. Love your blog. Detest the behavior you’re addressing. That’s why I won’t start an account.
I agree w/ the comment above about time management. These people have offspring. How do they have the time to care for their family and “report” everyone’s personal tragedy/triumph/drama/family matters?
And they’ll be the ones to “like” your blog.
If they unfriended you, that would mean they were acknowledging their rude and thoughtless behavior. There is no accountability w/ them. Only excuses.
Thanks Jennifer 🙂 I thought you might find the subject matter interesting today. I wonder the same thing about having time to care for their own business when they are so busy getting all up in everyone else’s! 😀